Mourning
by A.Pevensie
Summary: There are three funerals Narcissa Malfoy attends in the wake of the Battle of Hogwarts.


Narcissa Malfoy attended three funerals after the Battle of Hogwarts.

The first, which took place on the afternoon after the battle, barely qualified as one.

"Narcissa Malfoy? What do you want done with the body of you sister, Bellatrix Lestrange?" The ministry wizard had neither the energy nor the time to be delicate, and even if he had, would not have cared very much about the feelings of this woman, the sister and the wife of known Death Eaters.

Narcissa countered his callousness with complete sangfroid. "What are they doing with the others?"

He shrugged. "Stasis spells. Cremation, if there's not family."

"Then you may burn it." She told him. He turned to go, but she stopped him, voice still flat, but now with a slight hesitation. "May I … be there?"

"If you'll be calm. You can come now."

Twenty minutes later, Narcissa Black Malfoy watched as they put her sister's body inside the cremation chamber, and she did not change position or expression until it was gone. Then she turned around and walked back up the dungeon steps, back straight. She did not cry, and she did not ask what they did with the ashes.

The second funeral took place two days later. Severus Snape's body would have been cremated the day after the battle with the rest of the Death Eaters but for the forceful persistence of Harry Potter. He did not ask for the burial to be at Hogwarts, although the gossip around the castle – which was still acting as a temporary hospital and detention center – hinted that he might. The gossip regarding Potter's reasons was conflicting, although even then most people knew that Snape had somehow helped in the final battle.

Potter instead insisted that the former head teacher and potions master be given a full funeral at a quiet cemetery outside of London. The funeral was a strange affair. Few people had really liked Severus Snape, except students from the Slytherin house, and most of these were trying to stay out of the public eye. And even the presence of Harry Potter, hero of the wizarding world, was not enough to bring mourners to the funeral of the man so many had feared.

But Harry Potter _was_ there, accompanied as always by Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. The rest of the Weasleys attended as well, the daughter standing next to the Potter boy and looking rather fierce. Professor McGonnagall was there, along with Professors Slughorn, Flitwick, and Sprout – each representing one of the four Hogwarts houses. There were one or two aurors, and a few people who looked like students, or at least recent graudates of the school, including a slight girl with long blonde hair and the boy who had killed Nagini. He was shaking a little. The Greengrass girls were there with both their parents – the only Slytherin students other than Draco.

It was a quiet funeral. Minerva McGonnagall spoke first about his service to the Order of the Phoenix. Horace Slughorn was next, praising Snape's devotion to his profession. Draco spoke last; Harry Potter had asked him to. Draco's face remained smooth, but Narcissa knew it was hurting him, remembering out loud Snape's years of care and efforts to protect him.

Draco missed Severus, as did she. He had been an unimaginable comfort, albeit a silent one, throughout the endless fear that was Draco's sixth year at Hogwarts, as well as during the last few torturous months. But most of the mourners, four days earlier, would have been glad to see the last of Severus Snape.

When Draco finished speaking Narcissa cried. Since she was wearing a veil she didn't bother to wipe away the tears, and she sat as rigidly as she had only a few days earlier in the house which Voldemort had appropriated from them.

The third funeral was a week after the battle. She wore the veil again since she wasn't really supposed to leave the Malfoy manor. Not that she was under house arrest, but she was not being encouraged to leave either.

Lucius had been taken into custody the day after the battle, and she and Draco had both already been questioned numerous times. She expected that it was an experience they would be repeating, frequently – they would be lucky if they escaped jail time themselves.

She was still free, however, so she slipped out of the house quietly, leaving a note for Draco about some supplies she would pick up. She timed her arrival to coincide with the beginning of the funeral, and quietly took a seat in the back.

This last was the largest of the three funerals she'd attended. Harry Potter was again among the mourners, although that was not much of a surprise; he was attending most of the funerals of those killed in the Battle of Hogwarts. The Weasley family was there, as was Hermione Granger and what Narcissa guessed was every living member of the "Order of the Phoenix," including the interim minister of magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt. There were quite a few aurors, many of them still in work robes (no one had time for weekends yet), and numerous young people – most of these seemed to be Draco's age, or perhaps a few years older.

Still, it was fewer people than one might have expected, for a double funeral. But then, most of the students were probably in attendance for the husband, while the aurors were there to mourn the wife. The number of friends had probably also been limited by what the husband had been.

After the funeral Narcissa did not speak to any of the mourners, and she particularly avoided the immediate family of the deceased. It was not hard; there were only two. Still, she doubted that Andromeda wanted to see her, especially not as she held the grand-nephew Narcissa had never planned to acknowledge. She would not have even been here, representing the Black family at the funeral of her niece, especially since the werewolf husband was being buried at the same time, and Lucius would be displeased if he knew she was here but …

But in the end, Narcissa had not been able to ignore Andromeda's pain. She had almost lost Draco, and the glimmering of understanding of that pain was what had prompted her to attend the funeral. If Draco had died in that battle, she thought she would have liked his aunt to acknowledge the death.

She thought that Andromeda saw her, as she left. For a moment, Narcissa (Black) Malfoy was seized with a wild desire to run to older sister she had hardly known and cry with her for the pain she had almost shared.

Instead she put her veil up and nodded, slowly, and Andromeda drew herself up and nodded back, her arms fiercely holding the only person she really had left. Narcissa walked away.


End file.
